A Valley Without Wind 1 and 2 Dual Pack

It’s been interesting watching post-AI War Arcen at work. Their idiosyncratic drunken approach to genres has always resulted in games worth talking about. Granted, some of those words might not be all that complimentary, but they’ve never once released a game that had any hint of hubris. Not even when they return to the space strategy genre that pays the bills. The Last Federation’s a strategy/tactics game set inside a simulation game, which sets it apart from AI War’s ridiculous spectacle of death. It displays the one thing that’s true of Arcen’s game: it was announced in January, and it’s coming out next week. … [visit site to read more]

Older readers may recall that in February we took a peek at The Last Federation, the new space strategy game from Arcen Games. Even older readers may recall that Arcen first came to our attention for AI War – and lo, many a joke about Quintin and iron was spawned. After confusing everyone with A Valley Without Wind, and some appealing experiments in between, they’ve now returned to the genre which made them.

But what manner of beast is The Last Federation exactly? AI War too, or something very different? That’s the kind of question which can only be answered by watching an hour long (and change) alpha video. And also by saying that’s a hybrid of intergalactic simulation, grand strategy and RTS. … [visit site to read more]

Fixed a bug in the prior version where mouse aiming was on by default.

Thanks to Varone for reporting.

Updated the crates room to include text telling you that you can enable mouse aiming in the settings menu. Updated the controls display at the start of the game and the armory with the same.

Official 1.001 Mouse Aiming For Those Who Stood And Fought(Released February 19th, 2013)

Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause exceptions to be thrown when first generating the interior of a new building. - Thanks to windgen, Vatticson, and Mick for reporting.

Previously, there was a bug where the "enter NPC movement mode" keybind could work in side view, causing a warning message to pop up. - Thanks to Mick and Penumbra for reporting.

Fixed a minor graphical issue where "molten lava damage" was reporting damage 100x higher than was actually being done to you.

Mouse Aiming Option Added To SettingsAn option has now been provided in the settings menu for "Enable Mouse Aiming." This lets players who find keyboard or gamepad controls to be repugnant to experience the game in some manner. Our view is that this manner is sub-par and watered-down, but we've finally started looking at this as more of an accessibility mode. It's not ideal, but it allows a certain demographic to play who is otherwise unable/unwilling to do so. There is also a corresponding default keybinding set that has been added, which gives you WASD + mouse controls when used in tandem with the above option. Or you can set your own.

Oh, huh. So remember the part where Arcen Games was making a sequel to A Valley Without Wind, in which I very much hope they managed to add wind this time around? Well, it’s out. You can buy it and play it right this very second. Not just one or the other. Both! Unless you purchased the original version of the (perhaps too) tremendously ambitious sidescrolling platformer procedural role-playing co-op adventure – in which case, A Valley Without Wind 2 is completely free. Alternatively, if AVWW 1 (which my brain desperately wants to read as “Alien vs Wind Waker,” because I’ve been doing this job for far too long) flew under your radar, tossing a few of your coins into the sequel’s clinking cup will nab you a free copy of the original. I can’t say for sure yet whether or not AVWW 2′s everything its predecessor wanted to be, but I have to admit that all this generosity’s pretty darn cool.

A modern take on the 16-bit era, A Valley Without Wind 2 blends a variety of mechanics across multiple genres, seamlessly bringing together the best qualities of old-school platform-shooters and turn-based strategy games. You choose how and where to explore via the world map, how to upgrade your character via mage classes, feats, and perks that you unlock, and how to battle the forces of evil every step of the way.

Back in the mists of October we mentioned that procedurally-generated platform-adventure A Valley Without Wind would be getting a sequel, and that it would be free to people who purchased the original game. Now Arcen have begun to reveal a little of what they’ve been working on for that important follow-up, and you can see that below. There are glimpses of many of the things that make this a fresh take on the concept, rather than a rehash, include the isometric world map, which should give a little more context to the world you are exploring. It’s still pretty early, but there’s a lot of commentary in there to make it clear what’s going on (or not, given some of the audio issues.) (more…)

Arcen Games’ side-scrolling random-o-action game A Valley Without Wind continues to divide opinion, mostly due to its unusual appearance, but perhaps the warring tribes of Like and Don’t Like may be united by the sequel. It sports a new look, a bunch of new features such as building and it’s going to cost the princely sum of no-pennies to anywho who bought AVWW The First. (more…)

* New, fleshed-out citybuilding system that plays on the world map and utilizes NPCs* New procedurally-modified spells added to crafting framework and as loot* Vastly better intercontinental level progression* Added the incinerator for getting rid of inventory clutter* Added peaceful retirement to select a new character without killing your old one* Added ghost copies of inventory items for assigning the same item to multiple ability bars at once* New NPC features including dispatch missions, gifts, and unique attributes by time period* Reworked enchant system* New mystery: The Story of Jinsiek and John* Improved mystery clues seeding* 100 new rooms* New underwater buildings* New unlockables* New music track* Improved intro mission* Improved encyclopedia* Improved tooltips and help popups* Multiplayer tweaks and improvements* Full release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AVWW_-_Post-Launch_Series_2_Release_Notes

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